Plastic dumping in Navi Mumbai nullahs rampant

NAVI MUMBAI: Open nullahs, flowing long distance through the city, is a dumping ground for plastic waste. The menace is rampant across all nodes in the NMMC. Car accessory shops have majorly contributed to dumping the plastic wrapped around spare parts, the solid waste management department said.

The civic body collected a fine of Rs 30,000 from various nodes from various shops and sealed even two shops in Nerul. The action spanned a period of three months—January to March, 2017 when the civic body undertook the operation clean-up during the Swacch Bharat abhiyaan.

Nerul is reported to be worst node for the plastic violation and accounted for as much as 50% of the total penalty collected. The civic body said the first fine is Rs 250 and thereafter Rs 500 and Rs 1000 for second and third offences.

Nullah cleaning is a major operation during the annual pre-monsoon works as they are meant to transport the rain water from the various areas from the Parsik hills in the MIDC area to the Vashi creek, but sewage from the slum areas besides siltation caused by untreated or partially treated chemical industrial waste have greatly compromised the natural flow of water, which further faces obstacle from plastic waste.